S.R. Crockett - "The Lilac Sunbonnet"

Ella Wheeler Wilcox - "Poems of Purpose"

Kathleen Norris - "The Rich Mrs. Burgoyne"

Rudyard Kipling - "The Phantom 'Rickshaw and Other Ghost Stories"

New Philadelphia Book Publisher Highlights Local Talent
Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

Looking for Child to be on Cover of a New Book, 'The Model Child'
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

FlatSigned Press Alleges Don Imus Remarks Damage Legacy of President Gerald R. Ford
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Nathan Yungerberg, an accomplished model scout and professional child photographer is launching a nation-wide casting call to find the cover model for his highly anticipated book release, 'The Model Child: A Parents Guide to the Child Modeling Industry' (ISBN: 978-0-9817018-0-6).

Books: Lectures of Col. R.G. Ingersoll Latest

C >> Col. Robert Green Ingersoll >> Lectures of Col. R.G. Ingersoll Latest




I saw at the same time the musical instruments, from the tomtom, which
is a hoop with a couple of strings of rawhide drawn across it--from that
tomtom up to the instruments we have today, which make the common air
blossom with melody. I saw, too, the paintings, from the daub of yellow
mud up to the pieces which adorn the galleries of the world. And the
sculpture, from the rude gods, with six legs and a half dozen arms, and
the rows of ears, up to the sculpture of now, wherein the marble is clad
with such loveliness that it seems almost a sacrilege to touch it; and
in addition I saw there ideas of books--books written upon skins of wild
beasts, books written upon shoulder-blades of sheep; books written upon
leaves, upon bark, up to the splendid volumes that adorn the libraries
of our time. When I think of libraries, I think of the remark of Plato,
"The house that has a library in it has a soul."

I saw there all these things, and also the implements of agriculture,
from a crooked stick up to the plow which makes it possible for a man to
cultivate the soil without being an ignoramus. I saw at the same time a
row of skulls, from the lowest skull that has ever been found; skulls
from the central portion of Africa, skulls from the bushmen of
Australia, up to the best skulls of the last generation.

And I notice that there was the same difference between those skulls
that there is between the products of those skulls. And I said to
myself: "It is all a question of intellectual development. It is a
question of brain and sinew." I noticed that there was the same
difference between those skulls that there was between that dug-out, and
that man-of-war and that steamship. That skull was low. It had not a
forehead a quarter of an inch high. But shortly after, the skulls
became doming and crowning, and getting higher and grander. That skull
was a den in which crawled the base and meaner instincts of mankind, and
this skull was a temple in which dwelt joy, liberty and love. So said
I: "This is all a question of brain, and anything that tends to
develop, intellectually, mankind, is the gospel we want."

Now I want to be honest with you. Honor bright! Nothing like it in the
world! No matter what I believe. Now, let us be honest. Suppose a
king, if there was a king at the time this gentleman floated in the dugout
and charmed his ears with the music of the tomtom; suppose the king
at that time, if there was one, and the priest, if there was one, had
said: "That dug-out is the best boat that ever can be built. The
pattern of that came from on high, and any man who says he can improve
it, by putting a log or a stick in the bottom of it, with a rag on the
end, is an infidel." Honor bright, what, in your judgment, would have
been the effect upon the circumnavigation of the globe? That is the
question. Suppose the king, if there was one, and the priest, if there
was one--and I presume there was, because it was a very ignorant age--
suppose they had said: "That tomtom is the most miraculous instrument
of music that any man can conceive of; that is the kind of music they
have in heaven. An angel, sitting upon the golden edge of a fleecy
cloud, playing upon that tomtom became so enraptured, so entranced with
her own music, that she dropped it, and that is how we got it--and any
man that says that it can be improved by putting a back and front to it,
and four strings and a bridge on it, and getting some horsehair and
resin, is no better than one of the weak and unregenerate."

I ask you what effect would that have had upon music? I ask you, honor
bright, if that course had been pursued, would the human ears ever have
been enriched with the divine symphonies of Beethoven? That is the
question. And suppose the king, if there was one, and the priest had
said: "That crooked stick is the best plow we can ever have invented.
The pattern of that plow was given to a pious farmer in a holy dream,
and that twisted straw is the ne plus ultra of all twisted things; and
any man who says he can make an improvement, we will twist him." Honor
bright, what, in your judgment, would have been the effect upon the
agricultural world?

Now, you see, the people said, "We want better weapons with which to
kill our enemies;" so the people said, "we want better plows;" the
people said, "we want better music;" the people said, "we want better
paintings;" and they said, "whoever will give us better plows, and
better arms, and better paintings, and better music, we will give him
honor; we will crown him with glory; we will robe him in the garments
of wealth;" and every incentive has been held out to every human being
to improve something in every direction. And that is the reason the
club is a cannon; that the reason the dugout is a steamship; that the
reason the daub is a painting, and that is the reason that that piece of
stone has finally become a glorified statue.

Now, then, this fellow in the dug-out had a religion. That fellow was
orthodox. He had no doubt; he was settled in his mind. He did not
wish to be insulted. He wanted the bark of his soul to lie at the wharf
of orthodoxy, and rot in the sun. He wanted to hear the sails of old
opinions flap against the mast of old creeds. He wanted to see the
joints in the sides open and gape, as though thirsty for water, and he
said: "Now don't disturb my opinions; you'll get my mind unsettled; I
have got it all made up, and I don't want to hear any infidelity,
either." As far as I am concerned, I want to be out on the high sea; I
Want to take my chance with wind and wave and star; and I had rather go
down in the glory and grandeur of the storm than to rot at any orthodox
wharf. Of course I mean by orthodoxy all that don't agree with my doxy.
Do you understand?

Now this man had a religion. That fellow believed in hell. Yes, sir;
and he thought he would be happier in heaven if he could just lean over
and see certain people that he disliked, broiled. That fellow has had a
great many intellectual descendents. It is an unhappy fact in nature
that the ignorant multiply much faster than the intellectual. This
fellow believed in the devil, and his devil had a cloven hoof. (Many
people think I have the same kind of footing.) He had a long tail,
armed with a fiery dart, and he breathed brimstone. And do you know
there has not been a patentable improvement made on that devil for 4,000
years? That fellow believed that God was a tyrant. That fellow
believed that the earth was flat. That fellow believed, as I told you,
in a literal burning, seething lake of fire and brimstone. That is what
he believed in. That fellow, too, had his idea of politics, and his
idea was, "Might makes right." And it will take thousands of years
before the world will believingly say, "Right makes might." Now all I
ask is the same privilege of improving on that gentleman's theology as
upon his musical instrument; the same right to improve upon his
politics as upon his dug-out. That is all. I ask for the human soul the
same liberty in every direction. And that is all. That is the only
crime that I have committed. That is all. I say, let us have a chance.
Let us think, and let each one express his thoughts. Let us become
investigators, not followers; not cringers and crawlers. If there is
in heaven an infinite being, he never will be satisfied with the worship
of cowards and hypocrites. Honest unbelief will be a perfume in heaven
when hypocrisy, no matter however religious it may be outwardly, will be
a stench. That is my doctrine. That is all there is to it; give every
other human being all the chance you claim for yourself. To keep your
mind open to the voices of nature, to new ideas, to new thoughts, and to
improve upon your doctrine whenever you can; that is my doctrine.

Do you know we are improving all the time? Do you know that the most
orthodox people in this town today, three hundred years ago would have
been burned for heresy? Do you know some ministers who denounce me
would have been in the Inquisition themselves two hundred years ago? Do
you know where once burned and blazed the bivouac fires of the army of
progress, the altars of the church glow today? Do you know that the
church today occupies about the same ground that unbelievers did one
hundred years ago? Do you know that while they have followed this army
of progress, protesting and denouncing, they have had to keep within
protesting and denouncing distance, but they have followed it? They have
been the men, let me say, in the valley; the men in swamps, shouting to
and cursing the pioneers on the hills; the men upon whose forehead was
the light of the coming dawn, the coming day--but they have advanced.
In spite of themselves, they have advanced! If they had not, I would
not speak here to night. If they had not, not a solitary one of you
could have expressed your real and honest thought. But we are
advancing, and we are beginning to hold all kinds of slavery in utter
contempt; do you know that? And we are beginning to question wealth
and power; we are questioning all creeds and all dogmas; and we are not
bowing down, as we used to, to a man simply because he is in the robe of
a clergyman, and we are not bowing down to a man now simply because he
is a king. No! We are not bowing down simply because he is rich. We
used to worship the golden calves, but we do not now. The worst you can
say of an American, is, he worships the gold of the calf, not the calf;
and even the calves are beginning to see this distinction.

It no longer fills the ambition of a man to be emperor or king. The last
Napoleon was not satisfied with being Emperor of the French; he was not
satisfied with having a circlet of gold about his head; he wanted some
evidence that he had something within his head, so he wrote the life of
Julius Caesar, that he might become a member of the French Academy.
Compare, for instance, in the German Empire, King William and Bismarck.
King William is the one anointed of the most high, as they claim--the
one upon whose head has been poured the divine petroleum of authority.
Compare him with Bismarck, who towers, an intellectual Colossus, above
this man. Go into England and compare George Eliot with Queen Victoria
--Queen Victoria, clothed in the garments given to her by blind fortune
and by chance. George Elliot, robed in garments of glory, woven in the
loom of her own genius. Which does the world pay respect to? I tell
you we are advancing! The pulpit does not do all the thinking; the pews
do it; nearly all of it. The world is advancing, and we question the
authority of those men who simply say "it is so." Down upon your knees
and admit it! When I think of how much this world has suffered, I am
amazed. When I think of how long our fathers were slaves, I am amazed.
Why, just think of it! This world has only been fit for a gentleman to
live in fifty years. No, it has not. It was not until the year 1808
that Great Britain abolished the slave trade. Up to that time her judge,
sitting upon the bench in the name of justice; her priests, occupying
the pulpit in the name of universal love, owned stock in slave ships and
luxuriated in the profits of piracy and murder. It was not until the
year 1808 that the United States abolished the slave trade between this
and other countries, but preserved it as between the States. It was not
until the 28th day of August, 1833, that Great Britain abolished human
slavery in her colonies; and it was not until the 1st day of January,
1863, that Abraham Lincoln wiped from our flag the stigma of disgrace.
Abraham Lincoln--in my judgment, the grandest man ever president of the
United States, and upon whose monument these words could truthfully be
written: "Here lies the only man in the history of the world who,
having been clothed with almost absolute power, never abused it except
on the side of mercy."

Think, I say, how long we clung to the institution of human slavery;
how long lashes upon the naked back were the legal tender for labor
performed! Think of it! when the pulpit of this country deliberately
and willfully changed the Cross of Christ into the whipping-post. Think
of it! And tell me then if I am right when I say this world has only
been fit for a gentleman to live in fifty years. I hate with every drop
of my blood every form of tyranny. I hate every form of slavery. I
hate dictation--I want something like liberty; and what do I mean by
that? The right to do anything that does not interfere with the
happiness of another, physically. Liberty of thought includes the right
to think right and the right to think wrong. Why? Because that is the
means by which we arrive at truth; for if we knew the truth before, we
needn't think. Those men who mistake their ignorance for facts, never
do think. You may say to me, "How far is it across this room?" I say
100 feet. Suppose it is 105; have I committed any crime? I made the
best guess I could. You ask me about any thing; I examine it honestly,
and when I get through, what should I tell you--what I think or what you
think? What should I do?

There is a book put in my hands. They say "That is the Koran; that was
written by inspiration; read it." I read it. Chapter VII, entitled
"The Cow," chapter IX, entitled "The Bee," and so on. I read it. When
I get through with it, suppose I think in my heart and in my brain, "I
don't believe a word of it;" and you ask me, "What do you think of it?"
Now, admitting that I live in Turkey, and have a chance to get an
office, what should I say? Now, honor bright, should I just make a
clean breast of it and say "Upon my honor, I don't believe it?" Then is
it right for you to say "That fellow will steal--that fellow is a
dangerous man--he is a robber?" Now, suppose I read the book called the
bible (and I read it, honor bright), and when I get through with it I
make up my mind that book was written by men; and along comes the
preacher of my church, and he says "Did you read that book?" "I did."
"Do you think it is divinely inspired?" I say to myself, "Now if I say
it is not, they will never send me to Congress from this district on
earth." Now, honor bright, what ought I to do? Ought I to say, "I have
read it. I have been honest about it; don't believe it?" Now, ought I
to say that, if that is a real transcript of my mind, or ought I to
commence hemming and hawing and pretend that I do believe it, and go
away with the respect of that man, hating myself for a cringing coward?
Now which? For my part I would rather a man would tell me what he
honestly thinks, and he will preserve his manhood. I had rather be a
manly unbeliever than an unmanly believer. I think I will stand higher
at the judgment day, if there is one, and stand with as good a chance to
get my case dismissed without costs as a man who sneaks through life
pretending he believes what he does not. I tell you one thing; there is
going to be one free fellow in this world. I am going to say my say, I
tell you. I am going to do it kindly, I am going to do it distinctly,
but I am going to do it.

Now, if men have been slaves, what about women? Women have been the
slaves of slaves; and that's a pretty hard position to occupy for life.
They have been the slaves of slaves; and in my judgment it took
millions of ages for women to come from the condition of abject slavery
up to the institution of marriage. Let me say right here, tonight, I
regard marriage as the holiest institution among men. Without the
fireside there is no human advancement; without the family relation,
there is no life worth living. Every good government is made up of good
families. The unit of government is family, and anything that tends to
destroy the family is perfectly devilish and infamous. I believe in
marriage, and I hold in utter contempt the opinions of long-haired men
and short-haired women who denounce the institution of marriage. Let me
say right here--and I have thought a good deal about it--let me say
right here, the grandest ambition that any man can possibly have is to
so live and so improve himself in heart and brain as to be worthy of the
love of some splendid woman; and the grandest ambition of any girl is
to make herself worthy of the love and adoration of some magnificent
man. That is my idea, and there is no success in life without it. If
you are the grand emperor of the world, you had better be the grand
emperor of one loving and tender heart, and she the grand empress of
yours. The man who has really won the love of one good woman in this
world, I do not care if he dies in the ditch a beggar, his life has been
a success.

I say it took millions of years to come from the condition of abject
slavery up to the condition of marriage. Ladies, the ornaments you bear
upon your person tonight are but the souvenirs of your mothers' bondage.
The chains around your necks and the bracelets clasped upon your wrists
by the thrilling hand of love, have been changed by the wand of
civilization from iron to shining, glittering gold. But nearly every
religion has accounted for the devilment in this world by the crime of
woman. What a gallant thing that is! And if it is true, I had rather
live with the woman I love in a world full of trouble, than to live in
heaven with nobody but men.

I say that nearly every religion has accounted for all the trouble in
this world by the crime of woman. I read in a book--and I will say now
that I cannot give the exact language; my memory does not retain the
words--but I can give the substance. I read in a book that the supreme
being concluded to make a world and one man; that he took some nothing
and made a world and one man, and put this man in a garden: but he
noticed that he got lonesome; he wandered around as if he was waiting
for a train; there was nothing to interest him; no news; no papers;
no politics; no policy; and as the devil had not yet made his
appearance, there was no chance for reconciliation; not even for civil
service reform. Well, he would wander about this garden in this
condition until finally the supreme being made up his mind to make him a
companion; and having used up all the nothing he originally took in
making the world and one man, he had to take a part of the man to start
a woman with, and so he caused a deep sleep to fall upon this man--now,
understand me. I didn't say this story is true. After the sleep fell
upon this man, he took a rib, or, as the French would call it, a cutlet
out of this man, and from that he made a woman; and considering the raw
material, I look upon it as the most successful job ever performed.
Well, after He got the woman done, she was brought to the man; not to
see how she liked him, but to see how he liked her. He liked her, and
they started housekeeping; and they were told of certain things they
might do, and one thing they could not do--and of course they did it. I
would have done it in fifteen minutes, and I know it. There wouldn't
have been an apple on that tree half an hour from date, and the limbs
could have been full of clubs. And then they were turned out of the
park, and an extra force was put on to keep them from getting back.
Then devilment commenced. The mumps, and the measles, and the whooping
cough and the scarlet fever started in their race for man, and they
began to have the toothache, the roses began to have thorns, and snakes
began to have poisoned teeth, and people began to divide about religion
and politics; and the world has been full of trouble from that day to
this. Now, nearly all of the religions of this world account for the
existence of evil by such a story as that.

I read in another book what appeared to be an account of the same
transaction. It was written about 4,000 years before the other; but all
commentators agree that the one that was written last was the original,
and that the one that was written first was copied from the one that was
written last; but I would advise you all not to allow your creed to be
disturbed by a little matter of four or five thousand years. In this
other story the Supreme Brahma made up his mind to make the world and
man and woman; and he made the world, and be made the man and he made
the woman, and he put them on the island of Ceylon; and according to
the account, it was the most beautiful island of which man can conceive.
Such birds, such songs, such flowers and such verdure! And the branches
of the trees were so arranged that when the wind swept through them
every tree was a thousand aeolian harps. The Supreme Brahma when he put
them there said, "Let them have a period of courtship, for it is my
desire and will that true love should forever precede marriage." When I
read that, it was so much more beautiful and lofty than the other, that
I said to myself, "If either one of these stories ever turns out to be
true, I hope it will be this one."

Then they had their courtship, with the nightingales singing and the
stars shining and the flowers blooming, and they fell in love. Imagine
the courtship! No prospective fathers or mothers in law; no prying and
gossiping neighbors, nobody to say, "Young man, how do you expect to
support her?" Nothing of that kind. They were married by the Supreme
Brahma, and he said to them: "Remain here; you must never leave this
island." Well, after a little while the man--and his name was Amend,
and the woman's name was Heva--and the man said to Heva: "I believe
I'll look about a little;" and he went to the northern extremity of the
island, where there was a little, narrow neck of land connecting it with
the mainland; and the devil, who is always playing pranks with us, got
up a mirage, and when he looked over to the mainland, such hills and
dells, vales and dales; such mountains, crowned with silver; such
cataracts, clad in robes of beauty, did he see there, that he went back
and told Heva: "The country over there is a thousand times better than
this; let us migrate." She, like every other woman that ever lived,
said: "Let well enough alone; we have all we want; let us stay here."
But he said, "No, let us go;" so she followed him, and when they came to
this narrow neck of land he took her on his back like a gentleman and
carried her over. But the moment they got over they heard a crash, and,
looking back, discovered that this narrow neck of land had fallen into
the sea, with the exception of now and then a rock, and the mirage had
disappeared and there was naught but rocks and sand; and then a voice
called out, cursing them. Then it was that the man spoke up--and I have
liked him ever since for it--"Curse me, but curse not her; it was not
her fault, it was mine." That's the kind of man to start a world with.
The Supreme Brahma said, "I will save her but not thee." She spoke up
out of her feelings of love, out of a heart in which there was love
enough to make all of her daughters rich in holy affection, and said,
"If thou wilt not spare him, spare neither me; I do not wish to live
without him; I love him." Then the Supreme Brahma said--and I have
liked him first-rate ever since I read it--"I will spare you both and
watch over you."

Honor bright, isn't that the better story?

And from that same book I want to show you what ideas some of these
miserable heathen had--the heathen we are trying to convert. We send
missionaries over yonder to convert heathen there, and we send soldiers
out on the plains to kill heathen there. If we can convert the heathen,
why not convert those nearest home? Why not convert those we can get
at? Why not convert those who have the immense advantage of the example
of the average pioneer? But to show you the men we are trying to
convert--in this book it says: "Man is strength, woman is beauty; man
is courage, woman is love. When the one man loves the one woman and the
one woman loves the one man, the very angels leave heaven and come and
sit in that house and sing for joy." They are the men we are
converting. Think of it! I tell you when I read these things I begin
to say, "Love is not of any country; nobility does not belong
exclusively here;" and through all the ages there have been a few great
and tender souls lifted far above their fellows.

Now, my friends, it seems to me that the woman is the equal of the man.
She has all the rights I have, and one more, and that is the right to be
protected. That's my doctrine. You are married; try and make the
woman you love happy; try and make the man you love happy. Whoever
marries simply for himself will make a mistake; but whoever loves a
woman so well that he says "I will make her happy," makes no mistake;
and so with the woman who says "I will make him happy." There is only
one way to be happy, and that is to make somebody else so, and you can't
be happy cross-lots; you have got to go the regular turnpike road.

If there is any man I detest, it is the man who thinks he is the head of
the family--the man who thinks he is "boss". That fellow in the dug-out
used that word "boss;" that was one of his favorite expressions--that
he was "boss". Imagine a young man and a young woman courting, walking
out in the moonlight, and the nightingale singing a song of pain and
love, as though the thorn touched her heart--imagine them stopping there
in the moonlight and starlight and song, and saying "Now here, let's
settle who's boss!" I tell you it is an infamous word, and an infamous
feeling--a man who is "boss," who is going to govern his family, and
when he speaks let all the rest of them be still--some mighty idea is
about to be launched from his mouth. Do you know I dislike this man
unspeakably; and a cross man I hate above all things.